He Did PR for Zuckerberg, Musk, and Google. Now He Says He'Only Told Half the Story' Thirty thousand feet in the air, Mark Zuckerberg turned to his speechwriter. The duo were flying in Zuckerberg's jet to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the Facebook boss was scheduled to address world leaders. Zuckerberg had a question for his companion. "Wait, what exactly is the UN?" Dex Hunter-Torricke had to hide his surprise. Zuckerberg was, by this point in 2015, the head of a company that was reshaping politics and societies around the world, with 1.5 billion users and counting.

There have always been two sides to the Meta CEO. But since the beginning of Trump's second term, the nice side has taken a back seat. Ruthlessness is now the name of the game. January 31, 2024, is an uncomfortable day in Washington. An icy wind is whistling around the corners of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, right next to the Capitol. Inside, the atmosphere is not much more welcoming. Indeed, it feels downright hostile. In the large hall, women and men are holding up signs - silent, in mourning and protest. On them are pictures of girls and boys, 12, 13, 14, 15 years old. Harassed, sexually abused, mistreated on social networks on the internet. Many of the children have died from the consequences. And the man primarily to blame is said to be the one sitting in a blue suit in the front row: Mark Zuckerberg, 39 years old at the time. His usually radiant boyish face is expressionless.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg plans to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence (AI) projects this year, even as other executives warn of a potential bubble in the industry. During a call with financial analysts on Wednesday to discuss the Facebook-owner's 2025 financial results, the company said it expects to spend up to $135bn (£97bn) this year, mostly on infrastructure related to AI. That is nearly twice the $72bn Meta spent last year on AI projects and infrastructure. In the last three years, the technology giant has spent roughly $140bn in an attempt to get ahead of the AI boom. Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that he is expecting 2026 to be the year that AI dramatically changes the way we work.

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. Despite not wanting minors to have explicit conversations, Meta's CEO allegedly rejected this particular safety measure. Meta has faced some serious questions about how it allows its underage users to interact with AI-powered chatbots. Most recently, internal communications obtained by the New Mexico Attorney General's Office revealed that although Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was opposed to the chatbots having explicit conversations with minors, he also rejected the idea of placing parental controls on the feature. In its statement to the publication, Meta accused the New Mexico Attorney General of cherry picking documents to paint a flawed and inaccurate picture.

Filing by New Mexico's attorney general includes Meta staff emails objecting to AI companion policy Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public on Monday. The lawsuit - brought by the state's attorney general, Raul Torrez, and scheduled for trial next month - alleges Meta "failed to stem the tide of damaging sexual material and sexual propositions delivered to children" on Facebook and Instagram. The filing on Monday included internal Meta employee emails and messages obtained by the New Mexico attorney general's office through legal discovery. The state alleges they show that "Meta, driven by Zuckerberg, rejected the recommendations of its integrity staff and declined to impose reasonable guardrails to prevent children from being subject to sexually exploitative conversations with its AI chatbots", the attorney general said in the filing. Meta announced last week that it had removed teen access to AI companions entirely, pending creation of a new version of the chatbots.

The trial starts soon in New Mexico's case against Meta--and the company is pulling out all the stops to protect its reputation. As Meta heads to trial in the state of New Mexico for allegedly failing to protect minors from sexual exploitation, the company is making an aggressive push to have certain information excluded from the court proceedings. The company has petitioned the judge to exclude certain research studies and articles around social media and youth mental health; any mention of a recent high-profile case involving teen suicide and social media content; and any references to Meta's financial resources, the personal activities of employees, and Mark Zuckerberg's time as a student at Harvard University. Meta's requests to exclude information, known as motions in limine, are a standard part of pretrial proceedings, in which a party can ask a judge to determine in advance which evidence or arguments are permissible in court. This is to ensure the jury is presented with facts and not irrelevant or prejudicial information and that the defendant is granted a fair trial.

Mark Zuckerberg announces new'Meta Compute' initiative for its data center and AI projects Newly appointed exec Dina Powell McCormick will play a key role in the effort. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends a dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump with tech leaders for a dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 4, 2025. On the heels of Mark Zuckerberg announcing that Meta's former board member, Dina Powell McCormick, would be formally joining the company as president and vice chairman, the CEO has shared new details about her purview at the company. The executive will play a key role overseeing Meta's sprawling infrastructure investments as part of a newly announced initiative called Meta Compute. Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time, Zuckerberg said in an update .

Meta says it is acquiring the Chinese-founded AI firm Manus as it looks to boost the capabilities of its tech. Bloomberg analysts and The Wall Street Journal suggested the purchase could be worth more than $2bn (£1.48bn). Meta said the deal would help improve its own AI by giving people access to agents - tools which can do complex things with minimal user interaction such as planning trips or making presentations. Manus's exceptional talent will join Meta's team to deliver general-purpose agents across our consumer and business products, including Meta AI, it said in a blog post. Barton Crockett, analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, told Reuters it was a natural fit for Meta, which extended into boss Mark Zuckerberg's vision of personal AI using agents.

We are approaching the Gregorian New Year, and it's a great time to ponder what's coming next. Are we about to use CRISPR to grow wings? Will we all be uploading our brains to the Amazon cloud? Should we wrap the sun in a Dyson sphere? If, like me, you are a nerd who loves science and engineering, sci-fi is the place you turn to imagine the answers.

What even is the AI bubble? Everyone in tech agrees we're in a bubble. They just can't agree on what it looks like -- or what happens when it pops. In July, a widely cited MIT study claimed that 95% of organizations that invested in generative AI were getting "zero return." While the study itself was more nuanced than the headlines, for many it still felt like the first hard data point confirming what skeptics had muttered for months: Hype around AI might be outpacing reality. Then, in August, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said what everyone in Silicon Valley had been whispering.